Base-ball machine.



E. M. HARBERSON.

BASE BALL MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 1|. 19:5.

1 1 72 Patented J une 29, 1915.

i Q t I v ww 1700 0/ We? Idward/f/ arberomv W v y j yw E. M. HARBERSON.

BASE BALL MACHlNE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 11. 1915.

Patented June 29, 1915.

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Specification of Letters Patent; v Pm gmfigdfllume 29 119115 Application med-march 1-1, as. semi no; raven;

To. afla whom it may ooncem:

BBJUIGIOWH that I, EDWARD Mr HARBER- sou h; citizenof the United; States, residing at-LosAngeles, in the county of Los Angeles and Stateofflalifornia, have invented a new and useful {Base-Ball Machine, of whichthe following isa specification.

My object is to make a machine for play m baseball, orthe th n which thegame will heentirely mechanical with the eXcep-.

tion. offthe' operator and; the batter; and my invention consistentthe novel features herein'shoWm descrihediand claimed.

Figure l. is a diagrammatic -perspective illustrating my base hall machines Figs is a; fragmentarysectional detail on the'line 2 2of Fig; 1 upon an eniar ed scale. Fig. 3 is afragmentary sectiona detail oil the line of Fig. 2-. Fig. 4- isa diagram- Inatiofperspective upon an enlarged scale,

the- -mechanical field being omitted. Fig. 5- is an enlarged fragmentary sectional detail oi-fthe base: hall Fig. 6 is a vertical sectionaldetaii upon an enlar line 6=-6o f Fig. 7, Fig.

0 p is shorizontalseotionsl detail on" the line 1? of Figs;

' s end ,6; Figifids "anfenlarged fragmentary plan osfJthe scha'ngeehd of the v gun barrel and showingjtho jfiurmr 1n position-"for use, asindieateo hyithe arrow 8 in Fig 5. Fig.

'- 9-is a cross sectional detail onthe line '99 of Figs. 5 ands. Fig: 10 is e fragmentaryplan of the sliding cross-head and clutch mechanism for operatln .theguinea 1nd1-- oatodghy thetarrow 16in; ig; 4:, Fig 11 is a 1, the mechanical-hall held 2, theimitation Q pitpher 3 the. controllers connectedsto the -1 and the machine-thus constructed. is miflmftdgto: he opera ed in a room or hall, a sh mting gallery,n,which is entirely inclosed, the trout, end-fifths ruoin heing a .1 course screen 5.

' tollowsiThe gun barrel 6 has a bore Z large The details of the hase hall 1 are as enough to carry the base ball 8; the barrel 6 is, fixed through the 'csnter of the piston casing head 9, a piston casing 19 isifixed to I the. head 9 and the piston head 11 fits in the casing 10. Spring c'asingsllQ are fixed through the head 9' around the barrel 6 and the retractile coii springs 13 are mountedin the spring casings 12 Caps 1% are:

ed scale upon a ball machine euibodying the prihit esf mt in e ion om rises a; hall mounted upon the forward ends of the casings I2, screw eyes 15 extend through the caps 14 and connect to the forward ends of the springs 13, there being nuts 16 upon the screws against the caps for adjusting the tension upon the springs, The rear ends of the springs 13 are connected to eye-bolts 17 fixed in the piston head 11. The tension of the springs 13 is exerted to pullthe piston head 11 toward the piston casing head 9. The feed pipe 18 discharges into the gun barrel 6 near its rear end.- A rigid crosshead 19 is fixed diametrically across the rear-end of the piston casing 10 and the piston rod 20 isfixed to the piston head 11 and slides through the bearing in the center of the orosshead l9 and extending backwardly through theguide bearing 21 fixed in the frame 22. An expansive coil spring 23 is mounted around the piston rod 20 between 21 vparallel with the piston rod 20 The Y sliding cross-head 26 is mounted. upon the piston rod 20 and secured thereto by the pin I 27, and said cross-head is slidingly mounted upon the bars 24 and 25. A clevis 28 extends backwardly from the sliding crosshead' 26. The hearing block 29 is slidingly mounted upon the piston rodQO and a hook '30 is pivotally connected to the hearing block- 29 and adapted to hook into the clevis 28, there dosing a guide finger 31 upon the hook, so that as the hearing block 29 op preaches the clevis, the guide finger 31 will slide over the clutch bar 32 of the clevis. Anear l extends upwardly from the hook wand a cord 34 is attached to the ear, so that by pulling the cord 3% the hook may he released from the olevis and the piston allowed to snap or shoot. The cord 3% extends over: the guide pulley 35 under the guide pulley 36' to and under the guide pulley 37' to the end ring 38, so that the operator39 may release and fire thegun by pulling the ring 38; A lever 40 1s lvotally mounted upon the shaft 41 fixe' in the frame 22, the upper end of the lever being bifurcated to spread the fin ers l2 and 43 so as to straddlethe piston re 20 and links 44- of the, lever 40 to the sliding rack 46, said; rack" 46 being mounted u on the base47. A hand lever 48 is mounte to vibrate length wise of the rack 46 andthe pawl 49 carried by the hand lever engages the teeth of the rack so as, to move the rack 46 awa from the gun. A retaining pawl 50 holds t e rack from going backwardly, so that as the hand lever 48 is operated, the rack 46 will move upwardly step by step and pull upon the cord'45, thereby moving the lever 40 to pull the "piston head 11 backwardly against the l tension of the "springs. A cord 51 connects the'lower end of the lever 40 around the guide pulley 52 to and around the guide pulley 53 to the ring 54, said ring 54 being iIl'POSltiOIl near the operator 39, so that, when he desires, the operator may pull thering 54 and return the hook 30 to the clevis. A slide valve casing 55 is incorporated into the feed pipe 18 and the slide valve 56 is mounted in this casing, said slide valve having a vertical opening 57, registering with the opening'58 in the feed pipe, so as to allow the balls to pass downwardly through the feedpipe' into the gun barrel. An arm= 59 extends upwardly from the block formmg the valve 56 and has fingers 60 extending'into' the slot 61 in the feed pipe 18, so that when the valve 56 is pulled backwardly, the lowerone, of the balls 62 will rest upon the imperforate part of the valve 56 and then, when the valve slides forwardly, the fingers 60 will pass into the slot 61 above the lower ball 62 and hold the upper ball 63, while the lower ball 62 falls through the opening 57 into the gun. A cord '64 is connected to the valve 56 and -extends'around the guide pulley 65 and is connected to the upper end of the finger 42 of the lever 40. A second cord 66 is connected tothe ost 59 and extends around a guide pulley 6 fixed upon the casing 55 and is connected to the upper'end of the finger 42 of the lever 40,-\ so that the. feed-valve is operated in pro or relation to the gun, that is-,suppose t at the lever 48 is operated to move the rack 46 forwardly to pull the piston head 11 backwardly, the 7 line of transmission being through the'cord 45 to the lever 40 through the links 44 to the cross-head 26 and then through the piston rod and also through the fingers 42 and through the cords 66 to the valve 56, so that as the piston head 11 is pulled-'backwardly, the valve 56 is moved forwardly to discharge the ball into the gun. Then, when the operator pulls the rin 38, the gun is discharged shooting the ball 18 out of the barrel 6. Then,; when the operator pullsithering 54, the line of transmission through the cord 51 moves the lever 40 to eonnec't the hook 30 to the piston meehani'sm and at the same time pulls the cord 64 to move the valve 56 hackwardly to re- 1ease'theball63 down upoit the i'mperforate part of the valve 56 ready tovbe dischar ed into the gun at the next operation. he supplyof balls is thrown into the hopper having a bottom 68 and a pipe 69 leading into the feed pipe 18.

The curver 70- is mounteduponthe forward end of the gun barrel 6, The details of the eurver'7 are as follows: A channel iron ring 71 is fixed-upon the end of the gun barrel 6 and a second ring 72 is loosely mounted; in the ehannelof is first ring. An arm 73-is connected1=to the ring 72 by a pivot pin 74, said arm'being'normally parallel with the gun barrel 6, Fingers 75 and 76 are connected together and pivotally connected to the forward end of the arm 73 by the pivot'pin 77 and a bar 78 extends backwardly from the fingers 75 and 76 past the in 77 and a bolt79'i s inserted through t e bar 78 through the arm 73 and through the expansive coiled spring 80 and an adjustin nut 81 is fixed upon the bolt 79, for ad usting the tension upon the fingers 75 and 76. The fingers 75 and 76 extend forwardly from the gun barrel 6 and swin in and out toward the line of the bore, 7, so that as the ball passes from the bore 7 itwill contact with the fin ers and the curvature thus imparted to the all may be regulated b the tension of the fingers adjusted by e nut 81. A cord 82 connects the rear end of the arm 73 to the lug 83 fixed upo'n the-ring 72 to form a stop and limitthe swingof the arm 73 in one direction.- A s ring 84 connects the rear end of the arm 3' to the lug St'ifixed to the ring 72 and upon the oppositeside' from the lug 83, the tension of the spring 84 being exerted to hold the arm 7 3 in its straight I parallel position- The stop 86 is fixed in the gun barrel 6, so that when the ring 72' is moved to bring the rear end of the arm 73 against the stop '86, further movement of the spring 84 Will cause'the forwardend of the arm' 3 to swin'g"laterally, so as to bring the fingers 75 and 76 out of the path of the balls, as when it is desired to shoot a straightball. A'cord '87 is attached to the li'nl: 88 and extends downwardly around the guide pulley 89 and forwardly around the winding drum 90 several times and then backwardly under the guide ulley'91 and upwardly on the opposite si e of the gun barrel to the opposite end of the link 88 and the winding2 rum 91 is operated by the hand'lever so that when the hand 'lever is moved'jforwardly, as indicated by the arrow"93, thering 72 is moved in the direction indicated-by the arrow 94 in Fig, 9, that -is-toward the stop 86, and when the hand lever'is moved backwardly in the direction indicated" by the arrow 95, the ring 72 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow 96, or away from the stop 86, In this way, the fingers 75 and 76 may move entirely around the track of the ball, as required to curve the, ball to the right, or to the rear wall 100. The gun barrel 6 ex tends through: the center of the upper part ofthfl via-11.99. The upperedges of the wallsi97 and 98 are steppedand the wall 101'rforms th e front face of thesecond step,

vtliewall l02flthe frontface of thethird step,

and the wall 103 the front face of the fourth step. A shaft 105 extends from the wall 97 to th e'"wa-ll 98 iii-front of the wall 101 at "the-first'step; a shaft 108 is similarly mounted for the'second step; a shaft 107 for the thirdstep and a shaft 108 for the fourth step... Posts 109 are pivotally mounted upon the shafts 105,106, 107 and 108 and the' l bases 1.10am fixed upon the upper ends of,

these posts. The bases 110 are fiat round plates marked lstbase, 2nd base, 3rd base, etc., and stop bars .111 are mounted behind the lower ends of the posts, when "in their upright positions, so that the posts will overbalance slightly forwardly and remain in their upright positions, until' the indicaters 112 are fixed upon the lower ends of the posts, so that when a base is hit, the post will fall oyerjbackward against the stops 113 and the indicators 11 2 will comeinto view, so that the score=lreeperimay take the score from the bases thathaye been hit.

The stops 113 are'connected to, the shai'ts' 105,106, 107 and 108 byarins 115 and cords 116 are conneotedto thestops113, so that the cords, thebasesmay be up-' by pullin righted. he balls which pass over the wall 101 will fall downwardly upoyn the floor 68: and all partsof .thefloor '68 areinclined to Ward the pipe' fiil; softhat thefballs will return to the feed valve, Any other'b a'lls must be picked up andzthrown intothe' hopper.

The details of the imitation pitcher 3 are as follows: The image 117- stands in front'of the gun land the arm of the image has a spring shoulder- 118 and a sprin elhow 119. A cord120 connects to the orearm121 and extends upwardly in front of the spring elbow through a bearing in the upper-part 122 of the arm and then back wardly and is connected to the bracket 123 extending downwardly from the cross-head 26, so that when the controller 4 is operated to pull back the piston and shoot a ball, the

. overlapping and. some distance apart, so

as to make a passage-way 126, making a zigzag passage through the wall, which is not likely to be penetrated by balls coming from the'gun, and the wall is open screen work so that the entire mechanism is in full VlGW of the operator.

The details of construction may be varied in manyways without departing from the spirit of my invention, as set up in the folowing claims.

I claim: I

1. A base ball machine, comprising an gun, means for feeding the balls one at a time into the air gun, an imitation pitcher mounted to be operated in unison. with the air gun, means for charging the gun, and means for firing the gun.

2. A base ball machine, comprising an imitation base ball field, mechanism adapted for throwing the balls, and an imitation pitcher operated in unison with the ballthrowing mechanism.

3; In a base ball machine, an air gun, a

.curver mounted upon the muzzle of the air gun, an imitation pitcher mounted in front of the air gun to be operated in uni son therewith, means for charging the gun and means for firing the gun.

4. In a base ball machine, an air gun, an imitation pitcher mounted to be operated in unison with the air gun, and a controller .mechanism for charging and firing the gun.

5. 1e abase ball machine, an imitation field, indicators mounted in the imitation field to mark first base, second base, and third base, an air gun discharging from the imitation field, an imitation pitcher mounted to be operated in unison with the air gun, and controller mechanism for charging and firing the gun.

EDWARD M. HARBERSQN.

Witnessesi Gnaon Donor NAourN, Samar G. WELLS. 

